Egypt’s Pylon Raises $19m in Seed Round, Musk Offers to Buy Twitter, and North Koreans Linked to $600m Crypto Heist

Africa

Kenya imposes new rules for streaming platforms

The Kenya Film and Classification Board will task content creators and streaming platforms to classify 70% of their content for age appropriateness under new regulations. Defaulting parties will pay a fine of $860 for each violation, and will be subjected to a longer content classification system.

DiDi leaves South Africa

Chinese ride-hailing firm, DiDi, has halted its South Africa operations as part of its new strategy. The world’s second largest ride-hailing platform had operated for only a year in South Africa after launching in April 2021.

Egypt’s Pylon raises $19m to scale operations

Egyptian infrastructure management platform has raised $19 million in a seed round, TechCrunch has announced. Led by Endure Capital, the fund will help the startup scale its water and electricity management platform.

Europe

London police arrest three over Club Penguin site

The City of London police has arrested three co-conspirators for allegedly running an unofficial Club Penguin site. The three were arrested on the wishes of Disney, who intend to bring copyright charges against the culprits.

Online market for hacked accounts shut down in global operation

Raidforums, a marketplace for stolen private data, has been shutdown in an operation that saw its 21-year-old founder arrested in the UK. Diego Santos Coelho, a Portuguese national, awaits extradition to the US.

Sex abuse victims want stronger Online Safety Bill

Victims of child abuse have written to the UK government to request a strengthening of the Online Safety Bill. They want tech giants to be forced to stop child abuse through livestreams and video calls.

The Americas

Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter

Tesla’s Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter for $40 billion. As the biggest single shareholder of the micro-blogging site, Musk has offered to purchase the remaining shares for $54.20 each.

Crypto expert jailed over North Korea sanctions

An American crypto expert has been jailed for five years for helping North Korea evade sanctions, the BBC has reported. Virgil Griffith gave a presentation on blockchain technology in North Korea despite being denied permission by the US State Department.

Amazon not adding crypto to payment options

Amazon’s CEO has said the retail giant is not adding crypto as a payment option anytime soon, Reuters has reported. Andy Jassy added that NFTs could be sold on the platform, however.

Asia

North Koreans targeted in $600m crypto heist

North Korean-linked hackers were allegedly involved in the theft of $615 million from online gamers, it has been reported. The game, Axie Infinity, allowed gamers to rack up crypto points through gameplay.

Fears over privacy emerge over new criminal procedure bill in India

A new Criminal Procedure Identification Bill in India has raised fears among human rights organisations. The new bill makes it mandatory for all arrested persons to provide biometric details including retina screens; data could be held for up to 75 years.

Chinese iPhone maker halts operations

A major Chinese iPhone maker has halted operations amidst lockdown measures in Shanghai. The city was locked down in March following a surge in coronavirus cases.